148251-we-gotta-get-dominion-numbers-up
Content ---- ---- ---- ---- maybe they've already done what there is to do today? i see plenty of folks running around in Illium. not sure how it looks on Exiles cant be bothered with them | |} ---- Eh, while that did help to increase Horde numbers, it also made the Horde playerbase almost exclusively Blood Elves, and it's only going to get worse with Demon Hunters. (Amusingly, the Alliance was already over-stuffed with Night Elves, so at least this time the pain will be shared across factions.) That said, as large as the Exile's numbers are, the majority are one race as well. It might sound nice at first to bolster the Dominion's number by such means, but I don't think a lot of folks on that side would care for having their own "Aurin" comprising the bulk of their faction. +++ More Dominion advertising is always good, but I don't know if trying to steer their "personality" in another direction is necessary. Admittedly, I don't have the greatest sense of "faction pride" with the Dominion either, but eventually I just shrugged it off and rolled with the "rawr evil empire" schtick or how after a while, the Exiles proved to have not-so-goody elements of their own. The Granok could be just as warmongering as the Draken, or how the Mordesh could be just as cold and amoral as the Mechari. I'd say the Dominion only has slightly "worse" going for it on public image relations on account of most Cassians being overly condescending snobs versus the overly cordial buddy Exiles (and while there's certainly friendly Lowborns, it just left me wondering why they didn't ditch the Highborns to join the Exiles) or how while the Aurin weren't above questionable acts FOR NATURE, they weren't downright psychopaths like the Chua have been FOR SCIENCE every single time I've encountered them. Mind you, this is coming from someone with an Aurin & Draken of their own, and has played as far as clearing out Galeras & Auroria storywise so as far as I know, the Exiles dirty their coat even more later on and the Dominion gets some really good redeeming moments. Edited December 17, 2015 by Dyxid | |} ---- The Dominion doesn't need pandering with media frippery to feel good about ourselves. ... That's what Artemis Zin is for ;P More seriously though, I don't think it really matters. There are always two types of races in MMO's that are most represented: Humans and 'The Cute/sexy One'. The playerbase is just like that, it's what always happens. If we weren't so base/predictable, it wouldn't be a problem! The Horde/Alliance imbalance was worse as they didn't even have humans. At least the Dominion does :) For what it's worth, in the year and a half we've been playing, I've seen/known more people drift from Exile to Dominion and stay there than I have the other way around. (Purely anecdotal, but there you go) Edited December 17, 2015 by Laeraneth | |} ---- These days racials are a big deciding factor for some players in WoW. | |} ---- Yeah....the Dominion's suck up attitude, rudeness, and pychopath behavior is indeed tiring and makes me wanna flee. The only fresh air on the Dominion side is the Drakens; they're straight to the point and want you to have fun doing it. You pointed out great stuff about the Exiles that I didn't even noticed or hardly pay attention to. But still the Exiles are a bit more friendly then the Dominion who's all about stroking their emperor (whose not even stuck up). And I'll admit it: like most people (who joined during the f2p transition) my 1st character was an exile because the ads on youtube showed mostly them. The dominion was a 2nd thought for the "different path route." Perhaps if they do an ad featuring the Dominion in a way that shows them to be cool and royal...maybe we get more players. Edited December 17, 2015 by Scar Red | |} ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- Did you even play Dominion? There's a lot of wrong with the faction, but saying that they lack depth is just plain wrong. The Dominion as a faction has a lot of potential that is just neglected in favor of the "good guys" Exiles. | |} ---- Played up until Malgrave, haven't quite seen grimvault and beyond though I suspect it's all very parallel to exiles at that point. I don't think the dominion lacks depht as far as backstory is concerned, just how it is presented in game. | |} ---- ---- ---- For me British Empire, like Red Coats and Pith Helmet Victorian era. I mean Nexus is pretty much like South Africa's Boer Wars (colonizing emperor vs. people who happened to be colonizing the area). I mean look at the F2P Trailer. They didn't even bother to release Dominion yet. Oh, doesn't help that the only one availible is Malvolio who didn't play a role in game compared to Kit Brinny. I feel that Carbine has inconsistency (like helping Freebots in Auroria but enslaving them in Whitevale, and Dominion Questline having little to no Exiles compared to Exiles questline). Must resist urge to yell at Carbine Staffs for their mediocrity. | |} ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- no thanks. | |} ---- | |} ---- ---- I can agree with that as it does apply sometimes.... | |} ---- ---- ---- Make the female side the option to be the cranky old lady ekose.... pls CRABIEN PLS | |} ---- And here we have an old lady ekose in its natural habitat, stalking the forums. One could say it preys upon the shinies..... | |} ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- Then stop your faction from making threads like these :) Given a solution, you don't want it, then don't complain "Boo hoo too few ppl are playing Dominion" Edited December 21, 2015 by jvjd | |} ---- ---- i havent complained about about the Dominion population. i have no need to be on a more populated faction. i'd rather have all cutesey stuff on the enemy faction so that i can kill em. Edited December 21, 2015 by Comus | |} ---- ---- I dont think carbine cares about mechari at all. The feet sticking out is incredibly annoying, and we STILL don't have voices. | |} ---- there are boots available where they dont stick out i have 2 models.. so there's possibly more if you look hard enough. the voice thing i dont mind and besides we get mechanical sounds when moving so there's atleast that :P | |} ---- There is even more, 2 models are non pvp gear, some pvp gear also cover feet but come on... Why not all models make in this way? It would be much better... Yet this mechari head going up and rotate - this looks kinda "low", they should have better expression... like less silly... | |} ---- ---- ---- HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA (would explain SOME of the crankiness of the dominion) And yes, we know some of you want Aurians to join the dominion but the dominion is too stuck up and rude :P | |} ---- Personally I like the way the feet are done, but the voice thing is not forgivable at this point. Asked about it in beta, asked about in p2p, asked about it when the sound and visuals forum was up, and nothing came of it. Either way inclined to agree | |} ---- ---- I can't speak to much on that, but frnkly it'd be nice if we had more of a stronger identity of the Dominion to me personally. The stories are okay and I love how some of them pan out, but I can't say I feel they're as unified in presentation as Exiles are. IF I need to eleborate more please let me know and I'll try... If it helps though these are more of the reasons I'm told people don't want to play dominion: The race/class combo they want isn't available They fear being on the underpopulated side The race designs don't appeal to them as much as Aurin do Too strong a religious overtone for their taste Chua don't have more feminine options(I know I know, but please let's not delve too deep into this) ^Chua(specifically the impression they get from Mondo, until you explain Mondo is a special case) are one track minded and not interesting Mechari feet Male Draken being hunched over The majority of their friends play Exile I love and do play Dominion personally, but the above are things I've been told by people I've talked to. | |} ---- HAHAHAHAHA no. | |} ---- Was that a laugh? I couldn't tell because I couldn't hear anything :lol: | |} ---- Right, starting bloody wars out of ego and defacing your cultural values (Granok), virtually exterminating a whole sentient species in a poorly conceived attempt to live forever (Mordesh), killing thousands of innocent people in terrorist attacks (Exile humans), and aiding terrorists and enslaving, raising, and eating thinking, feeling, sentient and sapient organisms (Aurin) is "Good" ... Faction choice never necessarily has anything to do with you personally, but that doesn't change the narrative nature of that faction just because you want a black and white story. You wan't more Dom players? Give the Dominion more trailer time, expand their main characters stories (Zin, Toric, Cazalon, the Emperor, Doon...). Also, finish opening up the classes for all races. Chua Warrior = gold Edited December 23, 2015 by Nazryn | |} ---- ---- I know right. Everything about mechari from npc dialogue to character animations is like, hey look this is a robot! Yes, I can see quite clearly that it is indeed a robot. <_< They're sentient (sapient? questionable with how they're represented ingame, being all I was created for purpose blabla) artificial beings stored in freaking exanite crystals housed in mechanical bodies designed by the most intelligent race ever known. You'd think they'd manage to learn to move a bit more organically at least. But nope, have to remind everyone they're a robot, how else would we tell. Also still lack of voice is unforgivable. Edited December 23, 2015 by Jelletje | |} ---- Also one thing: tram for Illium. I don't care about teleporters (not to mention lazy settlers), I wanted to travel around city in a hallmark of civilized city. edit: Depends if Marketing department will get their heads around on that idea. Edited December 24, 2015 by t209 | |} ---- I really like this post and agree a lot with the point that the Dominion has an almost surprising number of strikes against it that are just... well, odd. I'll add to the list above: the character select screen I know that is a very silly and small thing, but compare the default stance of (for example) a Cassian female and an Exile female. The Cassian female suffers from a bad case of what I think the kids call 'resting *cupcake* face' (or worse). The Exile female has a bit of a grin and a much more neutral posture. I'm not saying that changing their postures would fix much, but it's indicative of the problem: the aesthetic choices for the Dominion are often off-putting for no discernible reason. The default attribute for the Exiles seems to be "Spunky", while for the Dominion it seems to be "Arrogant". Arrogance is simply not an attractive feature (IMO). Overall though, the biggest problem as I see it is that the Dominion is presented as... well, as the bully. This is distinct from, for example, the situation in Warcraft or Star Wars (the Old republic): in both of those settings the 'opposing force' (for the sake of argument, I here mean the Horde and the Sith Empire) are presented as being roughly militarily equal to their opponents (the Alliance and the republic, respectively). In Wildstar, by contrast, the Exiles are presented as not just different, but vastly inferior in terms of power. Think of it this way: if the Dominion loses the battle for Nexus, they are beaten back and will return, as they have an unknown number of other planets under their control. If the Exiles lose... they are exterminated. Seriously, the Dominion is on Nexus for adventure, for exploration, for glory or to fulfill some prophetic destiny. The Exiles are on Nexus because they literally have nowhere else to go. If the Exiles lose, it's entirely reasonable to assume that at least two of the four Exile races will be the subject of a genocide (the Aurin and Mordesh). (I don't know if it's explicitly said that there are other Granocks elsewhere in the galaxy, and while the Exile humans will certainly be the subject of ethnic cleansing, they are humans after a fashion.) | |} ---- ---- Yeah....that's wrong. The Arkship was on its last leg, and it was either "Nexus or nothing." | |} ---- Well, there was an old (unreleased to make Exiles sympathetic) and in-game lore that implied that Dominion, along with its caste system, seem to get worse under Vorios the False. - Maybe Arboria was congratulations to Chua or bribe them to rejoin the Dominion after Vorios mandated some laws to *cupcake* them off. - Maybe losing Nexus is way less than a battle, plus the loss of "birthright" might set off anger and possible revolts. Like Dominion being non-existent might be worse than its existence. - Or Executive Meddling, maybe it was supposed to be Exile only and something changed during their development. | |} ---- Not really true. Dorian Walker went out into the outer rim on a fools errand to find Nexus because he was obsessed with it. His ship was the only one literally on it's last leg when the Drusentity appeared before him and showed him the way to Nexus. The Exiles could have went to any of the other planets in outer rim, such as those where the Marauders live, or any of the other planets equally as distant as Nexus that the Dominon doesn't control. The trip to Nexus took a long time even for the Exiles, they were not just about to perish, they just decided to follow Walker there, though the exiles undoubtedly knew they'd have trouble with the Dominion there... Plenty of groups in the game have a social hierarchy besides the Dominion, and unlike many of them the Dominion has upward mobility for it's citizens that earn it. Corrigan Doon and Toric Antevian are both examples of lowborn who though their own virtue ascended into positions of great power, fame, and influence in the dominion. It's also important to note that regardless of race or class, all Dominion Citizens have education and health care provided when they need it by the Vigilant Church. CRB HernCO mentioned in his lore drops on Reddit that Had the Aurin not abetted the Exiles the Dominion would have not bothered with them, and that it was a direct result of their aiding a group that to the Dominion were nothing but terrorists. As far as Nexus, the Emperor decree's it to be the Capitol of the empire. They will not lose it, the only way the Dominion leaves Nexus is if they, or the planet itself, is destroyed. It's the birthplace of the Dominion literally and figuratively, and it's rightfully theirs as heirs to the Eldan legacy both in spirit and in heredity. The Dominion isn't presented as a bully; they are presented as a large and proud empire, spreading peace and justice through the galaxy as mandated by their gods, the Eldan. From the Dominion's perspective, the Exiles are a small group of renegade exiles (granok), terrorist dissenters (humans), pathological time bombs who essentially extermineted their own species and risk the galaxy with their contagion (mordesh), and naive abettors of their enemies who eat enslaved thinking, feeling, sentient and sapient organisms (Aurin). Both factions have legitimate reasons for conflicting with the other, but make no mistake about the Exiles. They are exiles for a reason. Criminals, terrorists, traitors... This isn't Firefly no matter how much you want it to be, Mal didn't kill thousands of innocent civilians and citizens in surprise terrorist attacks like Brightland did. All of this is mostly lost on people who don't get into the stories on both factions, and see only stereotypes and superficial details. Edited December 25, 2015 by Nazryn | |} ---- This is one of the things that bugged me the most about the character creation revamp. They had an opportunity to make the Dominion look more appealing to new players, but went in the exact opposite way. Now one of the first screens you're presented when you make a new character is one where you have a cutesy or noble faction with a blue background standing against ones posed either like assholes or maniacal with a bright red background. If you're a new player who has no idea about the game's lore, the character creation screen practically screams "good" and "evil" when you're asked to pick a race. That's why when Carbine tells us that there are no clear good guys or bad guys, I have a hard time buying that that's what they're actually going for. Every time the Dominion are portrayed (if they're portrayed at all), they're clearly the evil antagonists against the ruff and tumble underdogs. Even given the opportunity Reloaded provided to paint a slightly different picture, they just doubled down. Like Nazryn said, there's plenty within the lore that could provide a very different look at the factions, but either Carbine really has no interest in actually portraying the Dominion favorably or they're just extremely bad at providing any sort of nuance. And neither does the Dominion any favors as far as bolstering their numbers and providing more balance. Edited December 25, 2015 by Cantatus | |} ---- Yeah, the fact is that the Dominion comes off terribly badly, in a way that the 'bad guy' faction in other games simply don't. If there is a single thing that best illuminates what's wrong, I think it might be the feather. Do you remember? In the Exile opening, the ship is in a shambles and there are dead people everywhere. You're pulled out of cryosleep because there is a guy desperate to find his pregnant wife. On the Dominion side, not only is there no urgency, but almost the first thing you hear is Axis talking about how perfect her instincts are perfect... and a damn robot uses a feather to dust your cryo tube. Talk about visual story telling. Like the opening shot of Star Wars (1977, aka Episode IV), that shot tells you so much without saying anything. Just from the visuals in the first moments of the game, you can tell that the Exiles are on the brink of extinction, and that the Dominion is run by the kind of people that have servants specifically to dust stuff with a feather. I'm not trying to be rude, but that's why I'm not going to respond at length to what Nazryn wrote: because it doesn't matter. Seriously, let's stipulate that everything he says is true (not even vaguely what I think, but let's run with it). The Dominion is poorly served by it's initial characterization... which is the whole point. Again, let's assume Naz is correct: so what? The problem is one of storytelling, not fictional geopolitics. Let me give a rather long winded example of what I mean: The Sith Empire in Star Wars: The Old Republic. The introduction for players on the Sith Empire faction is, at least in the opening, I think the gold standard of how to run characters in an "Evil" faction. Let's be clear, no one is going to make the arguments about the Sith that Naz is making for the Dominion. The Sith are expressly cruel, violent, racist, contemptuous and belligerent. The Sith revel in bloodshed and slavery. Yet the Sith are popular (I want to say more popular then the Republic, but I'm not completely sure about that). I would contend that this comes from the fine storytelling that Bioware puts into the starting areas and the backstory of their characters. In this case, specifically, your characters (who you can play as complete monsters) start off as underdogs. That sounds weird, but it's the case: of the four Sith Empire aligned classes, three start off 'on the wrong foot', so to speak (no spoilers, this is literally the first 15 minutes of the game); -The Sith Warrior begins as a prodigy, but is immediately informed that he has a dangerous rival in the starting zone. Moreover, he is informed that his arrival has irritated even more powerful entities that can swat him like a bug and he has to earn his future or die. -The Sith Inquisitor is, flat out, a freed slave who is constantly belittled by their 'mentor' who is actively trying to get you killed. -The Bounty hunter is a dashing rogue that almost immediately has his mentor and support team wiped out. Not just wiped out, but killed by someone that is set up as both a long term adversary and one of the worst cases of Backpfeifengesicht in video games. The only character class that isn't immediately beset by troubles is the Imperial agent, but that doesn't matter (because you're James/Jane f'rikken Bond with a laser). Oh, but even the Agent begins the game not by blowing up puppies, but by manipulating two (equally repulsive) Hutt gangster cartels. I strongly believe that this feeling of being the underdog, of your character being someone that has to make their way in a world of grey and black morality, helps to form a bond with both your character and your faction. By contrast, I see nothing like that in the starting zones of Wildstar. Granted, it's not helped that in SW:ToR, each class has a semi-customized starting experience while in WIldstar everyone on your faction starts exactly the same (down to the voice overs). Starting with that feather, the Dominion begins the starting zone as arrogant aristocrats and... remains arrogant and aristocratic. Of the follow-up zones, I would say that Artemis Zin's is the best from a story/emotional standpoint, but even then there is no element of you being an underdog. It's more... annoyed. Maybe it's just me, but in the initial Elder Cube arc, I never really felt like a daring adventurer that was critical to a vast story. I felt like the *cupcake* boy. Artemis doesn't so much give you missions as give you orders, and she's... kinda a reality TV star. The Draken branch is... well, congratulations, you're a Klingon. The only thing I really remember (other then the off-brand Skulls for the Skull Throne!) is the habit of your quest givers (Mondo and Warbringer What'shisname in particular) to laugh maniacally over destruction and slaughter. Again, at no point did I feel like an underdog, nor did I feel that I had any particular investment in the war between the factions. The Exile starting zones are, by comparison, light years ahead in emotional terms. In both cases you start out on the back foot (either your ship has crashed or the forest has come alive to eat you), you fight your way into a better position and help helpless people... oh, and at a certain point the Dominion shows up to do something unforgivable. They either murder a pregnant woman and injured people, or, basically, burn down a living library. Again, we can accept there are plausible reasons for the Dominion's actions, but they are not emotionally resonant reasons. Or, at least, not to the Exile player experiencing them for the first time. In the end, I don't know what Carbine can do to fix this: there is just so much wrong from a storytelling perspective. A tiny example: what was Carbine thinking using an Aurin (and a cute female Aurin at that) as the saboteur on the Dominion arkship? Imagine how different (emotionally) that plays with, instead of a bunny girls with a fluffy tail, pastel armor and bat ears, they had used a male Mordesh, maybe with the face where like the whole jaw and nose is raw bone in a glass jar. Which, given that the Black Hoods are heavily Mordesh, actually makes more sense in-game, but whatever. For goodness sake's, don't use what is basically the unofficial mascot of the game as the initial antagonist (especially not with the dialogue they give her...)! Oi vey... Even if you could fix the starting zones and other elements, you're still left with a game world where on the Exile side you have races fleeing from Genocide, and on the Dominion side you have races trying to commit Genocide. You have the Exiles in poverty and the Dominion in mansions. I don't know how you fix that in a way that can be attractive to people on an emotional level without completely rewriting things, or advancing the story in a very different direction. Edited December 25, 2015 by Buzzsaw | |} ---- Yeah....as usual you're wrong. I can't remember whether it's because you're lying, or you just don't actually read the lore. But "here we go again." So once again....I'm ignoring your own headcanon that you try to pass off as official lore. The Exiles were hurting before they even visited Arboria the 1st time. As they went there hoping to find supplies. With the constant influx of Mordesh refugees and the majority of the Aurin population, things got even worse. Which was before Dorian even left to find Nexus. Which was right before the rescue mission, and wasn't a fools errand. That's just your own bias speaking, as usual. Because they were, (going by the actual lore, not "Nazryn canon") in dire need of a place to land. ASAP. | |} ---- I actually agree with pretty much all of your points except this bit here. The only race in game to actually commit genocide prior to the gameplay (where both the Exiles and Dominion commit genocide against the Falkrin, and the Mordesh and Aurin commit genocide against the Torine) were .... the Mordesh. Arboria was stripped of it's resources (trees and minerals) not its inhabitants. In game Lore on the Sandthorns tells us Aurin still live on Arboria and continue to attack the Dominion Planet Reapers and defend the mother tree. And let's not forget, that it was Brightland and the Exiles that killed thousand of innocent Dominion citizens in terrorist attacks. Say what you will about the Dominion's strict laws and tough justice, they (in all cases except when Pheydra is behind it) fight with Honor. I will also very quickly point out... WE are the rich ones with 'mansions', and the "exiles" we are fighting are the poor ones on the brink of extinction... Consider that when you want to make claims about a sovereign nation being good or bad. Seriously? Did you even read the lore on Dorian? What he SHOULD have done was use his resources to find ANY nearby planet that could support the Exiles (there are plenty, and we know of at least one which was where the Marauders Hailed from). Instead he used the last of his resources in what the lore literally calls a "last ditch" effort to find Nexus.. a Planet that was as far as the Exiles were concerned only a legend. He is explicitly described as obsessed with Nexus... I didn't make anything up, that is literally how the lore is written. The Exile fleet being damaged didn't stop it from making the long trip to Nexus. Unlike Walkers ship, where the life support was actively failing. Exile fleet was in danger in so much as the Dominion finding them, not imminently doomed as walkers ship with actively failing life support was. This is from the timeline: "For years, Dorian scoured ancient star charts and ships logs, combing them for any references, however obscure, to suggestive celestial anomalies. Ceaselessly he grilled smugglers for detailed reports of their most memorable sights. With trinary systems so commonplace and green nebulae nonexistent, it was arduous work. Then one day he hit paydirt. It came in the unlikely form of an old spacer named Klegg he found slouchedin a miserable watering-hole on the Gambler’s Ruin. His eyes lit up at Dorian’s diagram of the nebula that he had sketched himself from the Book. Klegg hadn't recorded the nebulas coordinates—but another drink would likely help him recall the quadrant. Heart pounding, Dorian obliged. The next day, after scrawling a hasty note to Belle (and a terser, apologetic one to his superiors), Dorian stole the Horizon and soared off into the unknown, certain in his heart that salvation was at hand. Dorian's vision began to fade as he slumped over the navigation console. Hundreds of systems still to investigate...Something shimmered at the corner of his vision. Exerting every fiber of his will, he forced his eyes open. And saw... her. At first, Dorian was certain he was hallucinating. An ethereal female apparition was floating above the deck, smiling enigmatically. She raised her arm and pointed out the nearest port. Dorian looked, and saw three brilliant lights twinkling where before there had been nothing. When he shifted his gaze back to the figure, she was gone. He returned his attention to the port, and watched in wonder as the three lights flared with supernova intensity, then dimmed out completely, leaving only throbbing afterimages seared into his brain." Tell me again how STEALING A SHIP to chase a legendary planet with only a vague idea of the quadrant from a DRUNK was the ONLY viable option for the Exile fleet to find a planet to settle... When even Dorion comments on how many OTHER systems were around.... Keep your ridiculous ad hominem to yourself and straighten out the lore in your own head mate. Seriously, you even QUOTED it above: "Obsessed with finding the legendary planet Nexus for years, Walker had always been considered a crackpot amongst his friends and peers. Just before the rescue mission on Arboria, he left the fleet in a desperate gamble to find the Eldan homeworld. After weeks of fruitless searching, just as the life support systems on his ship started to malfunction" That's whats called a fools errand Dharnell.... Walker stole a ship to look for a planet that only he even thought existed and failed. His life support was failing and he was about to die... The only reason he did not was Drusera brought him to Nexus in the hope that those who came with him could stop the Entity. While we're at it. I guess It's also fair to point out that the lore itself is full of continuity errors. For example the Ravaging of arboria began 2 years before the discovery of nexus.. So either Walker wasn't searching for weeks having left before the rescue, OR the Exiles took nearly 2 years to rescue the Aurin... Also with the Fall of Grismara in game lore giving a timeline of days before the Dominion Quarantine was broken versus other sources suggesting over a decade (17 years according to HernCO from the Loreiface). So part of the issue is the lore's own continuity between in-game and other official lore sources. Edited December 25, 2015 by Nazryn | |} ---- The Dominion's portrayal is perfectly fine, imo. They're hardly the "clear cut" and actual bad guys. They're just far worse, than the Exiles and the Exiles number of (their actual and not the wonky Nazryn interpretations of) dark spots. Across the board. I find any complaints about negative portrayals of an empire that not only revolves around "Might Makes Right", but will gladly commit genocide for turning down their offer to assimilate, to be pointless. There's almost NO way to make that look group look like anything less than a faction of thugs (no matter how high they raise their pinkies/wine glasses), when that's one of the vertebra in their empire's backbone. That's one of your factions faults. Embrace it. Unless you want some "Mary Sue Faction." Carbine has done a darn good job of making them look as good as they do. They deserve far more credit than they get. | |} ---- See, this is exactly what I am talking about. Literally nothing you just wrote intersects with my points at all. Again, let's assume you're correct (just for the sake of this argument): how far into the game do you have to get in order to obtain these sterile pieces of information? That Feather is worth a hundred lore entries, and it's literally one of the first things a Dominion player sees. About your contemporary political opinions, I think it's safe to say that the less you share, the better. Oh, one thing as an aside; I'm going to quibble here, because WIldstar is as close to a complete rip-off of the Firefly universe as you can get without being sued. I won't say "shameless", but... Also, while Mal doesn't kill "thousands", he does kill people quite regularly. In fact, in the very first episode aired on Fox (which, to be sure, was not the pilot) Mal kicks a man into the spaceship version of a jet engine. In the movie he kills at least two unarmed men, one a person begging him for help and the other a helpless enemy. He shoots another unarmed man in the chest at point blank range but that guy survives. In one respect you are correct: Firefly is a (relatively) well done example of a black and grey moral universe, while Wildstar is a poorly done example of a black and grey moral universe. | |} ---- The multi-year trip has nothing to do with the fact that you were wrong (as you are with most things lore related) about THE FACT that the Exiles were hurting before he even left. Speaking of someone not reading lore and needing to straighten it out in their own head, what "resources"? That's just a worthless throwaway line, from you. He's just one man with some notoriety among the Exiles. What? His noted cheap spaceships, with no artificial gravity that ruined his limbs? His "so-called resources", that he had were no doubt being using all along, but were obviously nothing in the grand scheme of things, with the Exiles. Because they were STILL in trouble. But that point you brought up was useless and was just a "clever" attempt by you to introduce another baseless hypothetical, to keep your constant failing propagandist argument alive. He didn't check the other systems, because the Exiles were running out of time.And he might have checked them anyway. (Since there's nothing saying that he wouldn't.) Was it a gamble? Yup. Have people gambled on stakes that are just that high before? Absolutely. Do you personally dislike that level of risk? Who gives a damn. | |} ---- I'm going to have to disagree with you here: I think that Carbine has done a terrible job at creating an emotionally resonant experience for starting Dominion players. Again I bring up the utterly inexplicable choice Carbine made of having the Exile saboteur be an Aurin female. The initial introduction to the antagonist should not be a bubblegum flavored Yandere. Don't get me wrong, you can have a cute antagonist, but not the way Carbine did it. Also, consider my point about the Sith Empire: it's not about making the faction look good, it's about creating an emotional attachment to your character. Maybe it changes later on (which is the problem) but I went hours and hours on Dominion alts without ever feeling like I was playing the hero. | |} ---- Well to be fair the major reason SWTOR was great with creating an emotional attachment to your character was by giving you the ability to chose what you wanted to say in conversations. In Wildstar I've had no real problem creating such an attachment to my Dominion characters, because of RP, within the confines of the lore. Due to characters being a blank slate of sorts. And to be honest, you don't even need to engage in any heavy RP to create such a bond. You can just opt to semi-play in character, by thinking in ways that your character would, when in certain situations. Based on race/the personality you want them to have. That helped a lot, for me. Costumes as well. Dressing a certain way and applying certain dyes, is another nice method. Also housing. I should have mentioned THAT first. Building a lot that fits your character's personality helps a lot, as well. Like, you should see my Aurin's lot. It's built to accommodate a "Rich, snooty, "fish-out-of-water", Aurin." Edited December 25, 2015 by Dharnell | |} ---- ---- See this guy gets it, take notes Carbine. :o Don't do it man. Don't do it it, this thread will devolve like most of the ones in the lore section (though at least Bytek doesn't seem to post here). Just don't bother... *scrolls down* Aw hell. | |} ---- I dont agree with your SWTOR assessment, at least not fully. I've actually mentioned it throughout the forums several times why i think Sith in SWTOR is popular but Dominion are not. Think about this: what is it that makes a person chose Sith over Republic without having even seen or heard the questing dialogue yet on the starter planets? i think its books and movies. Those probably have a bigger impact on a new players choice if they would rather go Sith over Republic over storyline quality. The Empire is mostly evil in SWTOR and the movies just like how people perceive the Dominion to be the evil faction. But compare the Star Wars villains to its heroes. Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine, Boba Fett and Darth Maul. What do you suppose their rating is on the average SW fans "character badass-o-meter" when compared to someone like say Obi Wan TheGeezer? or Obi Wan McGregor? Emo Skywalker? Qui Gonna Get-stabbed-in-the-belly? Han Solo is probably the only badass the good guys have in the movies (only counting Ep 1-6 because they came out before SWTOR). Luke only starts to become badass in ROTJ when he force chokes Gamorreans like it aint no thang or he flips out on his Vader and beats the crap out of him. So anyways back to the villians...you have Boba Fett who was introduced what like 35 years ago? and the character has a HUGE cult following even today? how many spoken lines of dialogue did he have in TESB and ROTJ again? what about Vader who force chokes people on the monitor for making fun of his religion? Palpatine who shoots purple lightning out of his hands. Or Darth Maul who wields the first dual bladed lightsaber on screen, takes on two Jedi at the same time, growls and snarls at them and jumps around like a fricking ninja? Ray Park the guy who played Darth Maul was also into martial arts and he probably had a lot of leeway when it came to his own fight choreography. Go watch his fight scene and how he moves and then watch other fights like Anakin vs Dooku and pay attention to how both of them twirl their light sabers around like a bunch of idiotic ravers when the lights went out. So my theory is that people saw those characters on screen and they wanted to *be* those characters in SWTOR. And it actually works out for those kinds of players because even their moves were (imo) more badass than their Republic mirrored abilities. Sith Warriors have Force Choke and Force Scream. Force Choke is well...Force Choke...i dont have to explain why thats a cool ability. Then you have Force Scream where you sound like a damned lion or tiger growling when you use it. Then there are the rest like dual blasters for Bounty Hunters, Death From Above, rockets, flamethrowers, snipers sniping, 12 different kinds of lightning from Inquisitors. Compare those abilities to the animations of their Republic counterparts. Mirror abilities for Force Scream, Force Choke, Death from above and flamethrower for example. I found those mirrored abilities to be pretty weak looking on Rep side. And those are low level abilities i've listed so its not like you have 50 levels of storyline to go through before finding all the cool looking abilities. You get that stuff at level 2-10 and you have people saying screw the storyline i love these ability animations. NOW I spent all that time talking about how the movies make people want to be those characters in SWTOR right? well what does Wildstar have that is similar to that? nothing except for the flicks. We have barely anything that will make people go "ohh ohh ohh i want to play a Chua because in the flicks there was this one bad ass Chua". You have Kit Brinny who comes off as being really likeable and then you have Malvolio. If you only had room on your friends list for one more person and Kit Brinny and Malvolio were your two choices who are you gonna pick? i've said it numerous times too that maybe they should have made Artemis Zin the face of the Dominion in the flicks. Make her a likeable reality TV personality so that people wont look at her and make connections to Kim Kardashian or whoever. The flicks is all we have to go off of and i keep saying that flicks are what we should use to lure people over to the Dominion. So what do they do when F2P gets released? https://youtu.be/5dvIuXj4Gm4?t=17 They do that... | |} ---- ----